


Green: The Color Of...

by morganoconner



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Flashbacks, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-17
Updated: 2012-09-17
Packaged: 2017-11-14 10:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/514038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganoconner/pseuds/morganoconner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony teaches Bruce something about the other guy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green: The Color Of...

**Author's Note:**

> For zubeneschamali. ♥

The nightmares haven't been bad enough to trigger an incident in a long time, but then, he hasn't had anything in his life bad enough to trigger the nightmares in a long time either.

It's Natasha's face that does it.

Bruce rarely remembers much of anything that happens when the Hulk takes over, but when he does, it usually comes to him in flashes, weeks or even months after an incident. Sometimes it's little more than déjà vu, most times it's nothing but a brief sense memory.

The dreams are the worst because they're the clearest.

Two months after the Chitauri invasion, he gets a video message from Clint and Natasha, just an update on the situation at SHIELD, nothing big.

But he falls asleep that night and dreams of Natasha, of the fear shining in her eyes, her body braced for a blow she had to know would kill her. He feels the Hulk's rage, his readiness to strike, to _kill_.

Bruce comes awake with a scream caught in his throat and his spine arched. Within him, the Hulk battles Bruce's restraints, and Bruce grasps at his bedsheets as he sobs around the terror of the thing that lives inside him breaking free. The terror that's always there, always right at the edges of his consciousness alongside the anger, but it's worse now, it's so much worse because –

"Bruce?"

_Tony_.

Tony's lying next to him, his body a long line of warmth down Bruce's side, and if the Hulk takes over, Tony will be crushed. The Hulk could kill Tony with nothing more than a flick of his too-strong hand, and Bruce would have no way of stopping him. No way to even know what was happening until it was too late, until Tony was…

The thought sets off another spasm. Bruce shudders and digs the nails of one hand as hard as he can into his leg as he tries to just _breathe_. _No,_ he says inside the confines of his own fracturing mind. _No, please, no, not now, not now, please._

"Hey, hey." Tony props himself over Bruce, staring down with a concern he doesn't normally show anyone.

 _Get away,_ Bruce wants to shout, but his throat is closed up tight, locked down like if he tries to make a sound, the other guy will use it as his opening to escape. His arms flail briefly with the need to shove Tony away from him, and he locks them down as well, closing his fingers back around the sheets so hard they start to tear under the strain.

"Shh," Tony says, smoothing a palm down Bruce's face. "C'mon, Bruce, you gotta relax."

Relaxing is the last thing he should do. If he relaxes, he'll be gone. A haze of green starts to slide across his vision.

"Bruce." Tony presses both hands to the sides of Bruce's face. "Trust me. _Calm down._ "

Bruce tries to open his mouth and throat enough to tell Tony right where he can shove it, but all that comes out is a pathetic whimpering sound he didn't know he was capable of making. He squeezes his eyes shut as his body clenches harder against the tide of _Hulk_ trying to escape.

"He thinks you're in trouble," Tony tells him softly, leaning down to press a kiss to Bruce's forehead. "You need to prove to him that you're not. Relax, Bruce, come on. I know you can do it, buddy. For me."

 _For Tony_ is why he can't do anything of the sort. "He'll hurt you," he finally manages to grit out from between clenched teeth. There's a roaring sound in his ears, a rush of blood and adrenaline and the pounding of his heart and the mental chant of _no no no no no._

Tony scoffs. The idiot actually _scoffs_ , like Bruce is the one being completely unreasonable, and it just makes the anger and the fear ratchet higher. He thinks he can feel the shifting of bones now.

" _GO!_ " he yells, but Tony doesn't listen. Tony never listens, and Bruce should really stop expecting anything different.

"The big guy saved my life," Tony says, his tone matter-of-fact as he wraps his arms around Bruce. "He's not going to hurt me. You could maybe help that along by _relaxing_ , already."

"Tony." Bruce all but sobs his name, but the feel of the other man wrapped around him, breathing against Bruce's neck and humming something soft under his breath, has the instant effect of making Bruce's grip on the sheets slacken, his muscles begin to unlock one at a time.

And somehow, miraculously, as he begins to loosen, the rage monster inside him begins to subside, just like Tony said. Like the Hulk isn't just waiting with bated breath to take over when Bruce's back is turned, more like he's… _defending_ Bruce. Like an attack dog that only stops growling when the threat has passed.

"There, isn't that better?" Tony murmurs, nuzzling behind Bruce's ear. "Come on, admit it. I'm always right."

Bruce stays silent, allowing the tremors to pass, waiting for his breathing to even out as the green fades from his vision. When he does finally speak, his voice is hoarse like he's been screaming. "You got lucky."

"Luck's got nothing to do with it," Tony says, lifting his head enough so he can waggle his eyebrows and smirk down at Bruce. "The big guy likes me just as much as you do. I knew we'd all be okay."

Bruce wonders how it's even possible for Tony to know the Hulk the way he does. But he wasn't wrong, earlier, either…the other guy did save his life. Bruce has seen the footage. He saved Tony just as surely and just as _consciously_ as Tony's always claimed he saved Bruce himself from the Gamma radiation.

Maybe…

Maybe the other guy really isn't the enemy Bruce has always thought. Maybe Tony was right all along.

From somewhere deep inside him, he feels a low rumble of satisfaction.

If feelings were made of color, he thinks this one would be green.


End file.
